After two training sessions in Inchicore, the women’s volleyball team played and lost their first game on October 19th, against RCSI. However, from the moment where they entered the impressive RCSI building to the final point, they felt nothing but the positive pressure in what was a contested game.
First set
The first set was quite even. Some mistakes on the side of Griffith allowed RCSI to take a small advantage of approximately two points – advantage that widened after reaching the 15-points mark. At 22 points, RCSI was leading by a good seven-point gap. But Griffith didn’t feel like going down without a fight and scored four points consecutively on a nice service spree by one of Griffith’s best players. The scoreboard displayed 22 to 19. RCSI chose this moment to strike back and close the deal on the first set 25 to 19.
At half-time, each team got a speech with the coach (we can’t use ‘their’ here, because the same team coached both teams) to analyze their strong and weak points respectively. Then, time to get back on the court!
Second set
Despite the half-time pep talk, Griffith took a mental hit by losing the first set. They nonetheless didn’t give in. Three Griffith players formed the central spine of a team that fought tooth and nail to come back. In the end, though, their efforts weren’t rewarded, as they lost the second set 25 to 16.
So, overall, what did Griffith get from this first game? A couple of things came out of the post-match discussion. The first one was fun. Win or loss, all the players had fun and felt strongly about the team and playing together. The second one was the potential. Whereas the RCSI’s team had been playing together for three or four years, Griffith’s one is still a newborn one. And here, at the Circular, we can’t wait to see its players blossom.
